


Breathe deep and grow

by Keenir



Series: Xenoanthropology fanfiction [2]
Category: Dinotopia - James Gurney
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 02:31:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all the pressures and dangers of Dinotopia come from beyond the reefs or from the jungles...sometimes it comes from inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathe deep and grow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pts/gifts).



> I imagine both of them felt, at times, like the anonymous shopper who was heard to say "Oh I hate Christmas: it turns everything upside-down."
> 
> And this isn't what I had originally planned to write, but it's what Sylvia and Will wanted me to tell.

* * *

_Breathe deep, seek peace._

They are busy. So very busy so very often.

To a Dinotopian, time is _not_ linear, an orderly progression of events leading to an endpoint.

To a Dinotopian, time is _not_ cyclic, an endless series of repeating events.

To a Dinotopian, time _is_ helical, always moving forward, while some events repeat.

For Will Dennison, this took a bit of getting used to, even after living on this ancient island for some time.

For Sylvia Romano, this was all second nature.

And at times, that caused problems. And when it did not pose a difficulty in and of itself, it could be symbolic of a recurring problem. Helical, like time; even as their relationship and friendship advanced, some things were like seasons and births, in never going away.

For all that Will adapted to his new life, to talking with dinosaurs, to riding a flying reptile... There were still moments where he would stop in confusion, puzzled, with no idea what he was seeing or hearing. And it would not have mattered if Sylvia was a woman or a dinosaur - she was the one closest to Will, the individual most often in his company. And that that meant was it was all too often _she_ who had to explain to Will.

This fact is not easy for either of them to swallow. Most days, they simply avoid it, or downplay it. There are other issues demanding their attention, after all...

Sylvia and Will quickly learn that, tough as it was, the course they surmounted during Skybax training was not the hardest mission either of them would embark upon, individually or together...

They would find Shuvuuia use only 13 letters of the Dinotopian alphabet, while Paracursor use the full 26 plus five more. And Skybax riders need at least a passing familiarity in those and other scriptoral differences in order to advance in rank.

They discovered Shavipteryx are allergic to Skybax. But so are the ones who pick on Shavipteryx.

They mediated between Pakicetus and Desmostylians, creating the hope for a possible end to a long-standing cold war of a dispute.

Sylvia and Will grew. Into the clothes of older Skybax riders. Into closer communion with their _Q.skybax_. Into more comfortable around each other.

Will considered asking what the laws or customs in Dinotopia are. But, he realizes, if he asks Sylvia, Will believes, she will think he is proposing - in violation of the agreement he and shee had agreed, with his father as witness, that they wait until they are older. That's also why he doesn't think to ask his dad...that and the elder Dennison is all too often away and busy exploring remote corners of Dinotopia. And asking anyone else risks the same, plus Sylvia finding out from someone else - not from Will's lips to her ears.

He's thankful for another message arriving for delivery. He's back in the air in no time, letting the wind clear his mind as he goes to where the message must be delivered.

* * *

Sylvia and Will have been Skybax riders for nearly two full years now. And it has been agreed - by their Skybax, their superior, and Bix's opposite numbers - that the young couple-to-be need to see Kol before the pair's relations with one another (and by extension Dinotopia) collapses from the fragile state that has resulted from their papering over their problem. Sylvia had heard of Kol before - aside from herself and Will, Kol was the only person all the Alvarezsaurs could agree was an impartial mediator.

Their Skybax flew them to the middle of an aridity stretching as far as the eye could see, even when in the air. Once their humans had dismounted, the two Skybax retreated to rest under a rocky overhang.

Sylvia and Will found Kol waiting for them, standing not far away, in the middle of the aridity.

"I am Kol Ghuvia," she told Will and Sylvia, barely-visible one-clawed hands at her sides. "We'll begin."

"What do we need to do?" Will asked.

"That was the wrong sort of question. But in answer, you need to run."

"Run?" both humans asked.

Kol opened her mouth, revealing a full set of needle-sharp nubbin teeth in her elongate mouth. Suddenly the handclaws seemed impossibly sharp, her toes like the hooves of angry horses. And Will realized that, while that was how Kol seemed to him in this moment, he didn't know what was going through Sylvia's thoughts right now.

The therapy was comprehensive, forcing them to examine shortcomings of their individual selves and of their kinds, forcing them to pull air into the depths of their lungs, and to examine all their assumptions and recieved wisdom - dolphinback and Dinotopian alike. God and gods and ancestors, oral and written histories, supremacy and equality and separate-but-equal; ad subinfinitum.

The pair of them emerged from the desert, from therapy, better as individuals, better as a couple, and better Dinotopians. Unlike many on the island or beyond, whose teenagehood is spent in rebellion in one manner or another, theirs was spent with tanned skins and tenderized insides.

* * *

They spoke whenever they could, one to the other, greatly enjoying their time together.

To them, the stars were not objects of romance - those points of light were no different thank the sun's daily course: navigation aides. Sylvia and Will did not need stars - they had each other.

Will showed her Orion and all the others, but the important part of it for him was sharing the knowledge with the girl who had captured his heart.

Though 'captured' is a poor word there, for they were captured. Once by a Raptorex. Twice by dolphinbacks - once those who demanded to be taken to where Dinotopia's riches lie, once those who refused to believe there was no way off of the island. All three situations were ended peaceably.

Together, Sylvia and Will learn about the cousins of the Skybax.

They learn where to find and catch eels. 'Pork' and 'steak' and 'lamb' become little more than recounted and recountable memories for Will.

Most importantly, they learn about themselves more fully. And about the innermost depths of one another's mind.

 _Breathe deep, seek peace_ is not simply a tradition, it is advice. More than that, it is a stabilizing mantra when things become difficult to wade through. It is a wisdom which has been known by another expression in the fully human lands of Sun Tzu and Plato: _gnōthi seauton, know thyself._

**Author's Note:**

> Another form of "know thyself"...from Sun Tzu himself:  
> 故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。  
> So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.  
> If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.  
> If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.


End file.
